Government willing to talk with rebels

Tuesday

Feb 26, 2013 at 12:01 AMFeb 26, 2013 at 12:47 PM

BEIRUT - Syria said yesterday that it is prepared to hold talks with armed rebels bent on overthrowing President Bashar Assad, the clearest signal yet that the regime is growing increasingly nervous about its long-term prospects to hold on to power as opposition fighters make slow but persistent headway in the civil war.

BEIRUT ó Syria said yesterday that it is prepared to hold talks with armed rebels bent on overthrowing President Bashar Assad, the clearest signal yet that the regime is growing increasingly nervous about its long-term prospects to hold on to power as opposition fighters make slow but persistent headway in the civil war.

Meanwhile, the umbrella group for Syrian opposition parties said it had reversed a decision to boycott a conference in Rome being held to help drum up financial and political support for the opposition. Walid al-Bunni, a spokesman for the Syrian National Coalition, said the move came after a phone call between the groupís leader, Mouaz al-Khatib, and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.

The Syrian talks offer, made by Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem during a visit to Moscow, came hours before residents of Damascus and state-run TV reported a huge explosion and a series of smaller blasts in the capital, followed by heavy gunfire.

State-run news agency SANA said there were multiple casualties from the blast, which it said was a suicide car bombing.

The regimeís proposal is unlikely to lead to talks. The rebels battling the Syrian military have vowed to stop at nothing less than Assadís downfall and are unlikely to agree to sit down with a leader they accuse of mass atrocities.

But the timing of the proposal suggests the regime is warming to the idea of a settlement as it struggles to hold territory and claw back ground it has lost to the rebels in the nearly 2-year-old conflict.